


But It Was All A Dream

by Gem_Alawas



Series: Creative Writing Works [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Written for a Class, dream - Freeform, lucid dream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 07:13:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19389118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gem_Alawas/pseuds/Gem_Alawas
Summary: A little girl is given the chance to achieve her greatest dream, to not only save but truly improve an entire world.However, there's a catch:She's just dreaming, and she knows it.





	But It Was All A Dream

On one seemingly rather ordinary night, a girl laid peacefully in her bed. Her white, oversized nightdress splayed out around her like a shroud, as did her long, dark brown hair. Drowsing peacefully but not quite asleep, she seemed almost like some love interest from a cheesy movie with her mouth hanging open slightly, athletic form, closed hazel eyes, and her tanned brown complexion. But she was no damsel in distress to be rescued by a dashing prince, no, the girl known as Emmalyn Bell – or as she was more commonly known, Ema – was more the sort to rescue herself. She was doubtlessly thinking of great visions for the future and equally grand means to make them happen, as she usually did whenever she had a spare moment. Changing the world for the better was a tall order for a short girl of fourteen but she never let that stop her from trying, even if most of her ambitious designs ended in merely exploring around her suburban neighborhood for a while. Slowly, the perfect worlds Ema built in her mind faded away as she fell into a deep sleep.

When she returned to some form of consciousness, she was aware that she wasn’t, in fact, awake. She knew she’d fallen asleep in her bed and simple suburban home where she lived with her parents, not a rather stereotypical stone-brick hut with the only source of light a fireplace merrily crackling away across from her, a mess of indoor plants and vines waterfalling over packed bookshelves, and an occupied rocking chair in the far corner. Ema jerked upright with a slight gasp, abruptly noticing her changed attire. She was still dressed in a white dress, but instead of one for sleep it was decidedly made for moving, short, short-sleeved, lacking frills, and paired with a simple pair of gray running pants and black sneakers. She glanced around wildly, and noticed the rocking chair with its occupant mostly hidden in the shadows of the room.

She swung her legs off the bed and rose, balling her hands into fists and raising them as if to fight the unknown person. Said person slowly got to her feet, revealing herself to be an older but tough-looking, stern woman. Ema stared at her uncertainly, getting a tight smile in return.  
“Hello Ema. I’ve been waiting for you,” she said. Her voice was soft, but commanding. It carried easily across the room.  
Ema was totally confused.  
“What?”  
“Ema. You are needed here,” she continued.  
Ema couldn’t help her total confusion. She’d fallen asleep in her bed and woken up…wherever this was.  
“What? For what? What’s going on?”  
And then it hit her like a truck. She’d read books that started like this before. She hadn’t been transported to some far-off locale – she was dreaming.  
“Oh, I seem to have forgotten things, this all must be very disorienting. My name is May, May Summers, and yes, I have heard all the jokes. This world is a different one than the one you’re used to, Ema, and it’s facing big trouble – that you can help with. Our rulers are monsters – and I’m afraid I mean that quite literally. If our world is to prosper, a transfer of power must take place, and we need you to help make that happen. That is why you are here,” the woman explained.  
Ema slowly processed what May had just told her. She had to help remove these monster-leaders somehow, apparently. She was dreaming, really dreaming – what could it hurt?

“I’ll do it,” she replied, “what do I need to do exactly?”  
May paused, as if cutting off whatever she had been about to say, and instead said:  
“That was easier than I expected. You’re eager. Well, to take down those monsters, first you must strip from them their power. That power hinges upon a very delicate artifact. Ema, you are from another world, and because of that, you are fundamentally different to that artifact. If you touch it, it will break and make them human again – and once that is done, the laws of our land will remove them from political power.”  
Ema nodded along.  
“’Kay, but what is the artifact? Where is it?” She pressed.  
May smiled as she responded, “It is a statue, located about ten miles west of here. Of course, it is protected, but it’s nothing we cannot get by.”  
Ema knew she could easily walk that far in maybe a few hours. Her whole short life, she had been an avid adventurer, and her personal definition of adventure often led her to walk long distances in search of things to do. May took the lead, holding the door for the young girl and then following her out into a woods with surprisingly little undergrowth. The first few minutes of walking were both uneventful and outwardly silent, though Ema’s mind whirled with activity.

At last, she asked,  
“What will happen after? Like, what will change?”  
May looked over at her small guest, and then launched into a long speech. She described, first, how the world was now. Oppressive rules, dictator-like monsters doing the ruling, divisions between peoples, and suppression of the natural magic that flowed through the world had all become the norm over time. May and her allies wanted to topple those norms and the ones who imposed them, and make their world a better place. She talked of plans, detailed plans, that she already had. Removing those monsters from leadership wasn’t the first step – it was one of the final ones. As she walked, the landscape became more and more difficult, until Ema struggled to keep pace.

Ema walked a half-step behind May, thinking. She wanted to make the world a better place, of course, it had always been her dream. However, there was a big catch – this was quite literally a dream. Were she to go through with it, she would just wake up to her familiar, messy world – one that a fourteen-year-old girl could not fix by touching a statue. Ultimately, this watered-down fantasy adventure would come to nothing, and she knew that. It begged the question – was this really worth it? Walking ten miles, contending with who knows what resistance, and for what? To awaken with a smile? Ema realized that this might be all that she was doing.  
Risking fear and pain, though not her life nor her health, to feel a bit of bittersweet satisfaction. Despite that, however, she persisted. Not for altruistic reasons, there was no substance to any idea of altruism to people who didn’t exist in a world that was utterly fake, but rather for selfish ones. She’d always wanted to be a savior, always had aspirations of changing the world yet no ability to put those ambitions into motion. She’d designed endless, intricate plans to better the world yet she could never quite balance them with reality, much less put them into motion.

However, in this dream, Ema had the ability to make change. To live out at least some semblance of her fantastic ambitions, even if they would affect nothing in the end. It didn’t even seem all that dangerous, a major advantage given that Ema feared violent confrontation. Of course Ema took that path, of course she followed her dreams. She was an impulsive child, a child interested in doing things to all extents that she could. She rejoiced at the chance to do something major and right, even if it meant nothing on the grander scale. Despite the fact that to the rest of the real world, it meant nothing at all, it meant something big to Ema, and thus she kept walking.

It wasn’t all that long after that when on the near horizon loomed a hill. It wasn’t a terribly tall one, but at the top something night-black was visible. May’s steps quickened at the sight, forcing Ema and her shorter legs to almost jog to follow. Ema was getting tired at that point, but she forced herself to pick up the pace nonetheless. May glanced around.  
“Be careful, I think there might be loyalists about,” Ema’s guide advised.  
Ema nodded and looked around as well.  
“Loyalists?” She asked.  
May nodded.  
“People who want to keep the current regime in place,” she answered.

Ema figured that regime probably meant the monster-rulers May had talked about. She didn’t actually know the word. She, in any case, followed closely. The closest encounter up to the hill, thankfully, was a sound in the distance of running people, which the duo gave a very wide berth to. At last though, the two reached the foot of the hill. It was surrounded by a tough-looking stone fence, the gate to which was guarded by two people – a man holding a sword and a woman with a crossbow. May didn’t seem all that worried. Sure enough, her next words were:  
“Don’t worry, it’s not well-guarded. That statue is practically impossible to destroy for anyone but you.”  
She led Ema around far enough to be out of view of the guards. The fence was strong, but it wasn’t smooth – there were more than enough hand- and foot-holds to climb over it, which is precisely what May did before helping the young girl scramble her way over as well. After that, they found themselves facing nothing, no danger whatsoever, just a stroll uphill. Ema couldn’t shake the feeling that something had to be wrong, it couldn’t be this easy – but when she came face-to-face with the statue itself, one of a huge slug-like beast, her nerves had as of yet seen no cause.

She raised her hand, reached out, and placed it against the side of the statue. For a horrible moment, nothing happened – and then the statue collapsed into a fine dust. Over the land rang a sound like a gargantuan bell, the ground shaking with the force of the noise. May grinned triumphantly – the girl had done it! The oppressive forces over her land were no more! But, when she looked to congratulate Ema, the girl was gone, and then only a second later – so were May and her world, dying the death that all dreams do when the dreamer wakes.

Ema, for her part, awoke and stared up at the blank ceiling. She had achieved…absolutely nothing. Yet, despite that, she was glad. She had felt like she had done something, even if it was nothing in the end. That feeling would fuel her to work even harder at her real-life pursuits – so perhaps, the seemingly meaningless dream of saving the world really did mean something in the end.


End file.
